petre.ispirescu

Merry Christmas to you all.

Happy retirement you've finally found a league to match your talent.

"in the last 20 minutes, they bring defenders in" Says the one who brings Fellaini in to protect the lead at Goodison. And brings Bailly and Fellaini in to protect the lead against Tottenham, at Old Trafford. Someone tell this sad little man that Ivanovic is the only defender Conte has used as a substitute in this 11 match winning run. Other than that it's always Willian, Fabregas, Batshuayi, Chalobah coming in. Chelsea thumping everything standing in their way, whereas he'll have to sweat for a top 4 finish until the end. Must be killing him on the inside this. Wins against an Ukrainian pub team and two mid table teams and now Tony Pulis with money is back at it. Ha fucking ha.

"Según informa hoy The Sun"... They quote The Sun on this. Would not read to much into it.

Conte's given a new breath of life to this club, he's gained a lot of reputation through his work at the club and the 11 wins in a row. At this moment I do not think there would be anybody at this club trying to sign players on his own and force Conte to play them. If this goes through then Conte must have given his approval.

Chelsea would literally spend the Oscar money on James. Bench player with no future at the club for a starter in his mid 20s with his best years ahead of him. James' head needs to be sorted, but his talent cannot be doubted.

Think it's on. Money is there to be spent and do Chelsea have a real competition for his signature? Mourinho seems to have finally found his starting eleven, or at least the front six (Herrera, Carrick, Pogba, Rooney, Mhikitarian, Ibrahimovic) after almost half a year in charge. Don't think he is going to disrupt that now by adding another attacking midfielder. Plus he has other on the bench, too. (Martial, Mata, Rashford, Lingard). City? They have the money, but is there any rumour in the last days linking them to James? Can't seem to find any. No thread at Bluemoon either.

DP Sorry.

Not worried about his workrate to be honest, but his attitude. Remember the WC in 2014 where apart from his goals, he had a very good workrate, something in the region of 10 km covered in every of his 5 matches played there. But everything seems to have crumbled since his move to Real Madrid. Big fee, big city, world's most famous football club, big wages, but not that big of a development in his career. I'd say he's even stalled to be fair. Now even Lucas Vazquez and Mariano Diaz are being picked ahead of him at Real Madrid. Something is wrong with him otherwise I can't see why a fabulous ex player like Zidane would not pick him given his talent. If he thinks he is ready for a restart in his career and assuming he is aware of Conte's training methods and ethics, then he is welcomed here. But if he thinks he is doing Chelsea a favour by coming here, instead of the other way around, and acts like Ozil on the pitch, then we're better of without him to be honest.

Listen Fernando I have a soft spot for left footed footballers and I do not doubt James' ability. It's his attitude I'm most concerned of. He is Colombia's darling and I'm afraid fame got to his head since his move to Madrid. Kept the front page of the tabloids for a long time with his endless parties at nightclubs all over Madrid and his training ethics are very bad. Football wise I think he is a very good player. It's his head that needs to be worked at. A lot. I actually think he'd fit very well into this new formation because as I see it this 3-4-3 is a "3-4-3" only on paper. When defending it's clearly a 5-4-1 and when attacking I see it more as a 3-2-4-1. Exactly like this ML,DM,MR=The three defenders. MC=Kante&Matic. AL,AR=Alonso&Moses. FC=Diego Costa. AC=Hazard, Pedro/Willian. Hazard and Pedro/Willian have rarely played as wingers in this formation. That role is taken by Marcos Alonso and Moses almost everytime when Chelsea take attacking positions, whereas the supposed wingers (Hazard - Pedro/Willian) drift centrally becoming attacking midfielders. Assuming James would take Pedro/Willian's role, that is exactly his natural position. Would drift a lot centrally, this is why I think he'd fit very good into this formation. But is he a risk worth taking?

I'm actually worried to be fair. Watched his interview today, said he has offers and 7 days before giving a response. Reporter asked him "Can you assure the fans you're not leaving this winter? That you are staying in Madrid?" and James responded "No, I can not guarantee this." Also said: "I want to stay here, but does not depend on me only, there is other things, so I have to think about my future. I want to play more and I want to be here, but sometimes things do not work and if I want to play more then I have to think about everything and be able to find a way out." What a fucking way to be throwing the Oscar money away this would be.

Round 17 he's got less assists (2) than Chris Brunt and Troy Deeney. Remember last season when the vast majority of his assists were from corner kicks and free kicks? Flat track bully, only rated by the deluded goonettes.

Looked like a broken man in the last minutes. Just stood there, doing nothing, probably asking himself what the fuck am I doing in this team full of donkeys??? Too good for that little club. Perfect moment to offer him a way out of there.

That ball from De Bruyne............

I'm saying it's not everyday you win 11 in a row (normally it should be 13 by the time we face Spurs in January) so I think we should enjoy this as much as we can and let the tactical talk to the manager and his staff. Chelsea clearly have a manager that knows what he is doing at the moment and I have no doubt he'd be the first to figure out if and when his tactics get found out. Do I care at the moment that Chelsea do not look as ruthless as one month ago? Am I worried that clubs might figure out how to stop Chelsea at some point? I do not, nor am I worried because of the manager in charge and his approach. He's had the balls to drop the veterans, change the tactics and introduce new players into the starting eleven, play them at their strenghts. He is also going to be the first one to bail as out as soon as we hit a rough patch so as a Chelsea fan I'm just enjoying this brilliant moments we're living now with a few beers and a lot of enthusiasm. Tactical matters belong to the people in charge, if your average fan can see some problems in the team's tactics, be sure that Conte sees them, too. It's Sunday morning already, players have a day off as we speak, but is this the case for Antonio Conte as well? The football maniac in him tells me he's already watched the Palace game on repeat already. I've not had this feeling of joy in a long long while and I advise you to do the same. Let the people in charge worry about things, they certainly know better than us what needs to be done and not.

Pretty sure we have a manager in charge that says this word - "improve" - in almost all of his interviews so I think it's safe to say we're in good hands.

You on crack folks? It's bloody 11 on the trot and you still moaning about this and that? Third game in the space of only six days of course it was not going to be an easy game. We're on course to finish the year with 13 wins in a row can't believe there is some of you trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. They said we should be lucky if we finish top 4 come May, they said three at the back is never going to work in England, they said David Luiz is a clown and Marcos Alonso a Sunderland reject, they said Conte is going to get the sack by the end of the season. Here we are top of the league, nine points clear with a passionate manager in charge and a happy squad. Great times to be a Chelsea fan

Heard he does not want to leave London and lately he's stepped up his English lessons. Truly believe it's either a new deal with Arsenal or a transfer to Chelsea. Of course the chances of signing a new contract with Arsenal are way bigger than a move here, but one can hope. Especially him being sponsored by Nike with whom Chelsea have just signed a mega money kit deal.

Arsenal have offered Alexis Sanchez £9.3million a year to sign a new contract — but the Gunners are still significantly short of meeting their forward's wage demands. Arsenal's opening offer of £180,000 per week is a healthy increase on the Chilean's current deal worth £130,000. Nevertheless, Sanchez, 27, is determined to land a contract worth a minimum of £250,000 per week. Hope he stalls until when Bayern rip them a new one and are out of the title race, too. He is too good for that tin pot club. The sooner he realises, the better.

Massive game this one for me. Could potentially be nine points clear before anyone else kicks a ball this week-end. City v Arsenal and Everton v Liverpool, this alone should be the biggest motivation for the lads and I hope Antonio Conte prepares this match the best he can. Ten wins in a row, no time for complacency, lads should be pumped up knowing all eyes are on them Saturday at noon. Make a statement, win this game and let Liverpool, City and Arsenal feel the pressure knowing they must win to keep pace with us. Best thing in all this is that one of City or Arsenal is going to drop points, if not both (fingers crossed for a draw at the Etihad), so yet another reason to go into this match completely motivated and pumped up. Frankly I do not think this is going to be a straightforward win, yes, Palace are poor, but they have some quality players that could cause Chelsea problems if we get too complacent and judge them by their place in the table. They are playing home against the most in form team in the league, they are going to give their all this I am sure of. Any win will do, at this point I do not care anymore about stats. We have Bournemouth and Stoke next, both at the Bridge, where we can think about goals and stuff. This one against Palace is all about the win.

Thibo snatched the MOTM award from Kante's hands with that last save. Three points, on we go, but the truth is it could and should have been a bigger win, scoresheet does not reflect the reality.

Oscar would be such a fool to reject this move. Overrated player, found out big time, what's there left for him in Europe? Valencia? Milan based teams? Clearly not good enough for a top club and none of the 2nd string clubs would even get near to what Chinese offer him in terms of wages. This kind of bid definitely comes hand in hand with a big time salary. Take the money and run, do yourself a favour and do a favour to us, too, after years of false hopes that someone could actually turn a fraud into an actual footballer.

Patience is a virtue. Diego Costa - at Middlesbrough is the first one to hit that ball in a sea full of Boro players. Against Man City scores the first goal out of nothing, makes the second one after a beautiful centre forward play. Now single handedly wins this match that had boring draw written all over it. Superb player.

Freezing cold in Eastern Europe mate need 20 seconds to get my hands out of my gloves then my fingers are of no use anymore haha

Was Conte's main target the summer he left Juventus because they did not want to invest big money into the team. Slightest chance to sign him next summer, I have no doubts Conte will jump right on it this time, too.